Editor’s Note: This story contains spoilers for the debut of the second half of Season 5 of “Yellowstone.”
We now know the fate of Kevin Costner’s John Dutton in “Yellowstone.”
The long-delayed second half of Season 5 debuted Sunday. Moments into the episode, the audience learns that Dutton, the patriarch of the family, had died from a gunshot wound.
While it is initially believed that Dutton has died at his own hand, it is later revealed that he was actually murdered in a scheme involving Sarah Atwood (played by Dawn Olivieri), who is romantically involved with Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley).
Costner confirmed in June that he would not be returning for the new season.
The actor made the announcement in a video he shared on Instagram.
“I just want to reach out and let you know that after this long year and a half of working on ‘Horizon’ and doing all the things that’s required, and thinking about ‘Yellowstone,’ that beloved series that I love, that I know you love,” Costner said. “I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue Season 5b or into the future.”
The western “Horizon: An American Saga,” was the first of Costner’s planned multi-part film series which ultimately did not break through at the box office.
On Monday, Costner appeared on Sirius XM’s “The Michael Smerconish Program” and revealed that he didn’t even realize this episode was airing over the weekend, nor did he know the specifics of his character’s fate.
“I found out about it this morning, actually,” he said.
Costner added that he still hasn’t seen the episode but was made aware of the nature of Dutton’s death, which “doesn’t make me wanna rush to go see it.”
“That’s their business,” he said. “I gave it five seasons – I didn’t even know I was going to do it that long. There was a couple times where I talked about possible endings for myself.”
“Yellowstone” viewers took to social media to lament the loss of Costner’s character and how he was written out of the show.
Some of his cast members shared in the sadness.
“It’s hard to imagine the show without him. But that’s always where the show was headed. It was, can these kids do it without him?” Luke Grimes, who plays Kayce Dutton, told The Independent.
“So we all knew it was going to get there, we just didn’t know how or when, and clearly it was different than what we thought,” Grimes said. “But what it did do was ramp the show up to a 10 and now everything starts to unravel.”
“Yellowstone” airs on Paramount and is available for purchase on demand on Prime Video.
CNN’s Alli Rosenbloom contributed to this report.
